How to Accomplish Any Overwhelming Task in 3 Easy Steps

You want to get into multifamily investing, and you dream of enough passive income to replace your J.O.B. so that you can retire early. But the thought of it all overwhelms you.

You want to get into wholesaling single family houses to get started with real estate investing, but the sheer number of things that will need to happen to become a successful wholesaler intimidates you.

You want to lose 20 pounds, but the idea of completing P90X in the next 90 days seems impossible to you.

You want to save your marriage, but you feel like it’s too late. The probability of turning it around is too remote. The situation is too complicated. It would never work.

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Why Are Worthwhile Goals So Incredibly Difficult to Achieve?

When we think about any big hairy goal we have for ourselves, we feel overwhelmed and then immediately stop pursuing it. That’s why many of us who have dreams never get out of the gate — because we’re paralyzed by the enormity of it all.

What are the next three things you need to do to get you one step closer to your goal? Do them. This might take you a day or a week. When you’re done with your list of three things, determine the next three things you need to do, then do them, too.

Don’t worry about the 106 other things that you need to do. Just concern yourself with three.

Let’s say you do this for three months. Then you look up to see what you’ve accomplished, and you are absolutely amazed at how far you’ve come.

Why Does This Technique Work So Well?

It works well because the next three things (1) bring you closer to your goal, but also (2) don’t overwhelm you.

Let’s say your goal is to purchase a 75-unit apartment building with a group of investors, and you hope to get $2,500 per month of income from this, about half of what you need to replace the income from your job.

But you don’t have any prior experience; you only have a little of your own money and no investors.

Should you not even bother? Or should you do the next three things?

What are the next three things you should do? Well, let’s see. You should probably educate yourself. So go on Amazon and Google and search for apartment building investing resources. Buy some. Consume them.

Three weeks go by and you read two books and complete one course. What’s next?

Your course tells you to start looking for deals and to start raising money. OK, so you go to LoopNet and request and analyze three marketing packages.

You still have your full time job, so you can only do this in your spare time. But after three months you’ve completed a course, read two books, analyzed 9 deals and met with 9 investors, of which 2 committed $50,000 each if you find them a good deal.

WOW! Isn’t that amazing?

Do you still have a long way to find and close your first deal? Sure, but don’t think about that; it’ll just overwhelm you.

Just keep doing the next best three things and you can achieve anything in life.

What are the next three things you need to do?

Share below so we can keep you accountable!

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About Author

Michael Blank’s passion is being an entrepreneur and helping others become (better) entrepreneurs. His focus is buying apartment buildings by raising money from private individuals. He’s been investing in residential and multifamily real estate since 2005. He is the creator of the Syndicated Deal Analyzer and the eBook “The Secret to Raising Money to Buy Your First Apartment Building”.

Great article Michael! Brief, concise and straight to the point. I sometimes find myself paralyzed by my own thoughts and thinking too much is no good either. It’s doing things that matters most, so staying on track by creating a weekly schedule is very important for me. My next three steps are Finding Investors, Getting A real Estate Certificate from UCLA and Securing a part-time job. I made a list of all the activities that will help me achieve them and then organized them by recurring or non-recurring and put them in my calendar. That way I feel more goal-oriented and also accountable for the tasks I need to complete. Nothing is too wonderful to be true and nothing is too difficult to be done, right!?!

Great article and some good points to ponder. In the last few months I have really felt overwhelmed with tasks to do to take my business to the next level. It seems almost impossible to achieve so much while working full time and so I really like the idea of focusing on the next three things. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I am making progress and moving forward and that no one ever said this was a get rich quick game. I also have to remind myself to look back at my accomplishments and give myself praise. Many of my fellow investor friends who took those seminars with me have dropped out of the game.

I’m a big list maker, but sometimes my downfall is to do the easy things on the list first. I might be better served by taking the top three most important things and do those first. Priority, priority, priority.

Margaret … I have the same challenge: I tend to pick the next 3 things that are easy to do or that I like to do, which may not always be the things I OUGHT to do and that are important (but more difficult). When I notice I’m procrastinating an item on my to do list, I will block of, say, 2 hours and do it first thing the next day.

Great article and I found it right on time. I have attended seminars and have read many articles. I have accomplished many goals but now I’m in the “what’s next “phase. I will pick 3 things to accomplish this week and go from there. Thanks this boost was needed.